Capturing all the things that make me happy

nostalgia

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You know how every time your parents say “back in my day” your eyes immediately start rolling? I think I kind of get it why they say that now.

There are a lot of things you don’t expect about getting older. Like how it takes literal days to recover from a night out (aka when you are awake beyond 12 AM), how you can’t solely rely on your metabolism to keep you fit, or how everything reminds you of something else. The nostalgia is all too real.

It makes sense though. The more years you have under your belt the more experiences or stories are packed in those years. Life events like having a nephew welcome nostalgia, from looking through baby pictures to see who he looks like to re-learning nursery rhymes to appease the little guy (my animal noises could use some work).

Some nostalgia is a little more subtle, like listening to a song or visiting a restaurant which includes an uninvited guest of memories from the past.

And yet, nothing gives me greater nostalgia of my adolescence than Gilmore Girls. Despite the fact that I watched a lot of TV growing up (unfortunately I don’t watch as much these days, another thing they don’t tell you about getting older), Gilmore Girls will always remind me of ages fourteen to twenty. I think because this show came out during such a formative time in my life and I saw my life paralleled to Rory’s, it held a close place in my heart.

So when I heard two years ago that Netflix would be posting all of the episodes, I was so excited to Netflix and chill with the Gilmores..and then, the best news of 2016 (not exaggerating), Netflix was going to revive the series!

I watched all four episodes, six hours worth of television, in a thirteen hour span (6 of those hours included sleeping).

Cue the nostalgia! It was so great to be back in the quirky small town of Stars Hollow that I loved so much. I loved seeing what Lorelai and Rory had been up to. Growing older with a fictional character like Rory was a bit strange, but it was nice to know that if overachiever Rory Gilmore doesn’t have her life together then maybe all hope isn’t lost for me.

The episodes brought me right back to my high school days: eating Burger King every Monday night, promptly doing my homework after school, and stressing about college.

Nostalgia is funny like that. It can make you look at moments from your life with sadness or it can make you look back at a point in your life and make you realize how much you’ve grown since then. I miss being able to eat Burger King every week, but I don’t miss stressing about college. I miss the stability and routine that came with being a kid, but I don’t miss the lack of self confidence or sense of self.

As someone who like to write/feels a lot of feels/enjoys analyzing, nostalgia is exactly all that wrapped up into one (sometimes messy) emotion.

All this to say…I can definitely see myself saying “back in my day” once I have kids. So don’t judge me please.